1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multimedia streaming service and, in particular, to a streaming service method and system for improving service quality and reliability of the streaming service.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the popularization of portable multimedia devices such as mobile phone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), Personal Multimedia Player (PMP), and MP3 player, people can enjoy multimedia contents even on the move, e.g., in a car, on a bus or train. Typically, such a portable device is provided with a storage medium, such as a compact hard disc or flash memory, for storing multimedia contents. Recently, the portable devices are equipped with a wireless communication interface for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Bluetooth, Ultra Wideband (UWB), and the like. These communication-enabled portable devices are configured to play contents input through the radio channel in real time as well as the contents stored therein. More recently, advanced portable devices having multiple radio communication interfaces are emerged in the market. For instance, it is not difficult to find the mobile phones and PDAs supporting both the WLAN and Bluetooth technologies.
When one device receives a content provided by another device, they typically operate in server/client relationship. In the conventional client/server system, in order for the client to play the content transmitted by the server, particularly through a radio channel, the content should be completely downloaded. However, such a download-and-play method has shortcomings in that the client device must have a storage large enough for storing the whole content and must wait before playing the content until the content is completely downloaded. In order to overcome the shortcomings of the download-and-play method, a streaming method has been proposed. In the streaming method, the client device can present the content delivered by the server device constantly in real time.
However, the streaming method has drawbacks such as large energy consumption and unstable media playback in comparison with the download-and-play method.